The present invention relates to a cylindrical coaxial electrical connector comprising a male portion and a female portion, and of the type having an intermediate strip of contact springs placed in an annular housing in one of the two portions.
The invention applies in particular, although in non-limiting manner, to contacts for passing permanent currents in high voltage and medium voltage switchgear.
Contact springs are made of punched metal strip material. They are parallel to one another like the rungs of a ladder and they are therefore connected at each end to respective continuous side strips. Each side strip also has lobes or xe2x80x9ctonguesxe2x80x9d e.g. in the form of isosceles trapeziums which are bent out from the plane of the strip. To mount the strip, the portion which receives it, e.g. the male portion, has an annular housing with side flanks that slope so as to form a dovetail-shape. The above-mentioned tongues thus are brought to bear against these side flanks. However in order to insert the strip into the annular housing of dovetail-section, it is necessary to make a transverse strip-insertion slot. In order to avoid this additional machining, which is necessary for inserting the strip, it is known to place the strip in an annular housing whose flanks are at right angles or slope slightly but towards the inside, and to retain the strip in the housing by means of two resilient rings, one on each side of the strip and bearing radially against the tongues of the side strips. That solution is not satisfactory since the pressure exerted is not uniform over the entire circumference of the ring and there is a risk of the strip of contact springs being held poorly.
An object of the present invention is to mitigate those drawbacks, and the invention provides a cylindrical coaxial electrical connector comprising a male portion and a female portion, the connector being of the type that includes an intermediate strip of contact springs of elastic material, the springs being united at their ends by two continuous side strips and each having a succession of tongues extending the side strip outwards, said intermediate strip being placed in an annular housing in one or other of the two portions, said housing having two side flanks with walls that are perpendicular to the axis of the connector, wherein each elastic tongue has a first face bent towards the bottom of the housing and then bent in the opposite direction to form an end face rising up towards the outside of the housing, the end of said face bearing against the side flank of said annular housing.